The article focuses on the work of Russian dance journalist Akim Volynskii. He was composer, between 1911 and 1924 of hundreds of uncollected articles on ballet criticism, and author of one of the most remarkable books ever written on classical dance "Book of Ecstasies." In 1907 Volynskii's excursion to Greece changed the direction of his scholarly interests, moving them away from literature and theatre to the study of ballet.